On Friday 11th September Manchester PSC were holding a meeting with Bi’lin  protest leader Iyad Burnat. He is the co-ordinator of the Popular Committee in Bil’in, a small farming village 7 miles west of Ramallah in Palestine’s occupied West Bank. For over 10 years the Popular Committee have organised weekly demonstrations against Israel’s illegal ‘Apartheid Wall’ that has taken the villagers farmland, olive trees and livelihood.

On Friday 28th August 15 Iyad was arrested and badly beaten by the Israeli Defence Force. He has suffered broken ribs and extensive bruising, and as a consequence is unable to travel. As consequence he has had to cancel his UK speaking tour.

In place of this we are showing the award winning documentary  “5 Broken Cameras”, made by his brother Emad Burnat.  This is a 94-minute documentary film co-directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi. “5 Broken Cameras” is a first-hand account of the protests in Bil’in. The documentary was shot almost entirely by Emad Burnat, a Palestinian farmer, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son. Structured around the destruction of Burnat’s cameras by the IDF, the filmmakers’ collaboration follows one family’s evolution over five years of turmoil. An amazing documentary not to be missed.

The film won a 2012 Sundance Film Festival award, it won the Golden Apricot at the 2012 Yerevan International Film Festival, Armenia, for Best Documentary Film, won the 2013 International Emmy Award, and was nominated for a 2012 Academy Award – no surprise that it did not win. Despite these commendation and in contrast other independent cinemas in the north of England, Manchester’s Corner House Cinema was not prepared to show it.

Details

5 Broken Cameras  Directors: Emad Burnat /Guy Davidi (94 Minutes)

7pm 11th Sep 2015 @  Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount Street, Manchester, M2 5NS (behind the Central Library).